Title

Author

Date of Award

2000

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts Honours

Faculty

Faculty of Business and Public Management

First Advisor

Dr Gail Lugten

Abstract

The issue of self-determination for indigenous peoples is a subject for which there is increasing attention and continuing relevance. Despite this, progress towards delivering a regime or an indisputable right of self-determination for indigenous peoples is limited by two factors. Firstly, the lack of an explicit expression of the right as an international standard; and secondly, the lack of a conception of what indigenous self-determination is to mean. This thesis answers these questions in the following way: as indigenous peoples are for the foreseeable future to be contained as special 'minorities' within states, and as they must therefore enlist the cooperation of states in effecting their self-determination, this self-determination will depend upon some form of negotiation; negotiation which can best be instigated and protected by the official international recognition of the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination. Much attention is given in the thesis to the Draft United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (adopted by the United Nations Sub-Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities in 1994), due to its emphasis on the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination.

Access Note

Access to this thesis - the full text is restricted to current ECU staff and students only. Email request to library@ecu.edu.au